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Company executives need to adopt specific best practices for energy efficiency in networks and across connected devices, or unneeded energy use will continue to negatively affect their companies’ bottom lines and productivity, according to a white paper by IT consortium Climate Savers Computing Initiative.

One of the green innovations specific to networking systems is that of using highly efficient power supply designs specific to such applications. Most network systems are built with expansion in mind and, as such, often run using a fraction of their power supply’s full power, or rated load. But most power supplies are far less efficient when used at a lower loading.

However, current, state-of-the-art power supplies can run at near-full efficiency on loads as low as 31 percent of their rated capacity (see graph). Such supplies can offer efficiency in both the short and long terms, the white paper says.

Climate Savers Computing Initiative, formed in 2007, is an international coalition led by Dell, Google Inc., HP, Intel, Microsoft, and the World Wildlife Fund. Its stated aim is to reduce the environmental impact of new IT equipment through energy efficiency.